One of Australia’s most passionate, articulate and socially committed bands, Midnight Oil, have just announced they are reforming and undertaking a world tour in 2017.
The enigmatic lead singer, Peter Garrett, spent some time as a Labor politician in 2002, causing the band to go into a hiatus and no end of cynicism amongst those who felt he had ‘sold out’ to become a career politician. The other members continued to produce music in a range of local bands in the meantime. Having emerged unscathed from this experience, the band felt the time was right for the band to play together again given a number of disturbing developments both locally in Australia and overseas. In announcing their tour, members stated that they still felt as relevant today as they were more than ten years ago given not just Trump but European social upheaval and rising racism.
Full detail of their tour and ticketing details can be found here, but it will start in April, covering South America, USA, Canada, Europe, UK, New Zealand, and ending in Australia with performance on Remembrance Day, 11 November in Sydney’s Domain Park. It also includes the bands first UK show since 1996, at London’s Hammersmith Eventim Apollo on July 4th.
Here’s a reminder of the force of Midnight Oil, their classic 1980s hit “Beds Are Burning”:
New music is also underway and the band also announced the release of three box sets: a complete vinyl collection, the Full Tank CD collection (including all their existing albums and EPS), and the Overflow Tank, which will include 14 hours of unreleased and rare material across four CDs and 8 DVDs.
Both the Full Tank and the Overflow Tank will be housed in a miniature water tank, a replica of the tank that became part of Hirst’s drum kit after the band picked it up in the Western Desert while on tour in the 1980s. An embarrassment of riches indeed.
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